Son of The Sun
by Shatterfire
Summary: With the failure of Match, KR was delayed. Five years later, Superboy joins the team as a freshman, trying to weave his way through his strange relationship with Superman, his increasingly shifty leader, a perpetually lying best friend, a mentally intrusive Martian and far too many schemes than he can keep track.
1. Superboy

I haven't written fics in ages and felt as though I could write the first four chapters to be better connected to the plot. While this chapter was mostly left untouched excluding the last scene. Significant changes will be seen in the second chapter.

Son of the Sun

Superboy

M'gann ripped through Amanda Spence's mind with the gentleness of a hammer. Urgent to find the information of her mission's target before the beasts roaming the halls of Cadmus made another round. The woman's memories flowing into her mind, M'gann quickly found the piece she was looking for.

M'gann heard Wonder Girl let out a small gasp behind her as Dr. Spence collapsed on the floor, drooling. Nightwing quickly shushed him; M'gann gave herself a small reminder when they'd get back to teach Cassie the importance of being silent when in a building filled with super strong monsters.

_'The real Roy Harper is in this building just like he said.'_ M'gann announced through the mind-link as she filtered through any more useful information. A scientist working for The Light must have had indispensable knowledge.

Nightwing visibly bristled at the comment_. 'The original Roy Harper,' _he clarified_, 'not the real.'_

Images of a dark haired boy sleeping peacefully in a pod suddenly appeared in the Martian's mind as she dug deeper through Spence's mind.

_'Guys,'_ M'gann said frowning noticeably, '_we have a much bigger problem on level fifty-two.'_

* * *

"I have to go now. Will you be alright?" asked Diana gently.

No. Clark would not be alright. Clark should have in Metropolis, spending the night pooling over an article with Lois. He should been putting out a fire in Washington. He should have been off back in Smallville eating dinner with his family.

Instead here he was sitting in STAR Labs, sitting next to a hospital bed, standing a vigilant guard over its occupant, a fourteen year old boy.

A fourteen year old boy that had his face.

He had a clone.

He was far from alright.

"I'll be fine," he lied.

Diana sighed and gave him a quick hug, before she exited the room and Superman turned his attention back to the boy.

Clark had always known it was a possibility.

Ever since he learned about the missing sixteen hours and the true identity of Red Arrow five years earlier, he had known in the furthest recesses of his mind even if he tried to push the thought away.

He had been The Light's obedient puppet...

They could have easily...

He had known this.

Yet, knowing still didn't prepare him for the boy sleeping obliviously in front of him.

He had a clone. He had a _clone._ No matter how many times he repeated the words to himself. They just wouldn't sink in.

A small team led by Miss Martian had been sent on a mission to investigate Cadmus, a two-level company of Lex's that had until recently meant very little to the League. Batman's previous investigations had turned up nothing; it was only the incredible strange tip off they received the day before that made them go recheck the building.

There they found that the supposedly two-story building had fifty-two sublevels hiding underneath. Lex was probably still laughing to himself that he hid such a complex so close to League headquarters right under everyone's noses.

After a brief skirmish, Miss Martian broke into the mind of a leading scientist there named Spence and discovered the original Roy Harper's there along with the Light's newest weapon.

Project Superboy.

The first successful clone of Superman and only fourteen weeks old.

Miss Martian, limited on time and uncertain of the clone's reaction, had taken it upon herself to psychically sedate him before escaping with Speedy and the rest of her team.

The boy was then relocated to STAR Labs to be examined and guarded.

Now here he was, sitting in a room waiting for the boy to wake up while Oliver celebrated with Dinah in the room just next door..

Superman had not left the "Superboy's" side since he arrived, calling in sick and asking J'onn to take over his duties in Metropolis. There wasn't a clock in the room and Clark wasn't really in the mood to check how much time had elapsed. He just sat in his chair, staring at the boy looking for the faintest sign of the boy gaining consciousness. Diana having left him already felt like a lifetime ago.

All without the slightest idea of how the boy would react when he woke up.

Would the boy demand to be taken back to Cadmus? To Luthor? Already brainwashed to be their weapon and destined to be the League's future enemy? Was he like Red Arrow who thought he was the original? If so, how would he react to his childlike appearance? No one in the league wanted a child with Superman's powers having an identity crisis as bad as Red Arrow's.

The idea of using the Meta-collars and red sunlight lamps to control him had gone off the table as quickly as it came. The league had essentially abducted the child and no matter his origins, he was still innocent and treating him like a criminal was no way to establish any sense of trust.

So Superman, like the rest of the league was completely in the dark of what would happen when the boy woke up.

He had fought Bizarro and Ultraman before in previous encounters. But they were just from alternate worlds, his strange mirror counterparts created by different circumstances or the result of a fifth-dimensional imp who were too bored for their own good, they were far different from him for him to take seriously. They were just his opponents that needed to be defeated. There was a sense of detachment that he had taken for granted.

But just looking at the boy utterly devastated the Man of Steel. _This_ was different. This _boy. _Because that's all Superman could call him was the spitting image of him at fourteen. Just by looking at him brought up memories of Smallville, kissing Lana underneath the bleachers, doing chores with Ma and sneaking out of class with Pete.

Despite the League discussing the possibility for years of what they would do if the situation came up, he had spent years secretly comforted by the thought he could not be cloned like the others. The idea had just seemed so preposterous in the past. Even with the knowledge of Red Arrow's true identity and the other clones that they encountered. The Man of Steel had told himself that his DNA was too different, too complicated compared to Human DNA. There would be no way for them to figure it out. He was certain deep down; he would remain the last kryptonian in the universe.

Now there was some test-tube kid, a child easily young enough to be his son, something he knew he'd never be able to have in this world, his DNA too incompatible with humans to deal with. It'd have been kinder if he was his age. At least another Kryptonian adult would have been much easier to manage in his life. He had at least he somewhat expected that. It wouldn't have been so bad.

"Did you eat?" A voice asked. Clark turned to the doorway to see Dinah in casual clothing, standing there, juggling two plates and two sodas in her hands. At his silence, she sighed, "Of course you didn't. This is why Diana told me to check up on you." She walked over to him, carefully handing him half of the food before sitting in the chair next to him.

"How's Oliver?" He asked as he opened the can. He wasn't hungry, but eating gave him something to do other than looking at the Superboy for the time being.

"Happy. Scared. He's a lot of things now that Speedy's back." Dinah confessed. "He finally fell asleep a half hour ago and Speedy won't wake up for another day or two. So I thought I'd visit you."

"What about the others?"

"Miss Martian took Wonder Girl back to the cave. Barry went to work. Nightwing and Wally are looking for Red Arrow. He's been having a rough time since..." Dinah trailed off. Clark nodded in understanding. The Starro-Tech incident and his revelation of his true origins five years ago had left a scar deeper on the archer than any of the leaguers could possibly understand. "We're hoping he'll finally come home now that we found Speedy."

"I'm sure he will."

"But how about you, how are you doing?"

"Not well," Superman said, taking a bite of the sandwich, apparently it was chicken salad day at STAR. But he really didn't care at the moment it might as well have been ash.

"Well aren't you the master of understatement." Dinah said, taking a bite of her own sandwich. "It's not every day you find out there's another you in the world."

"No, it isn't." Clark said tersely. He was really not in the mood to talk about it. After taking another gulp of grape soda, he said. "But we all knew this was something they could have done. We've discussed this possibility for years."

"Yes, logically, we did," Dinah agreed in that soft voice, that annoying gentle voice she always used when she was having one of her therapy sessions with The Team. "But I don't think there is anything remotely logical or fair about this, do you?"

"What exactly do you want me to say?" He snapped, tired of the woman's runaround.

"How are you feeling?" She asked. "Really, tell me."

Suddenly feeling like he was on the Cat Grant show, Superman said, "Why did he have to a kid?"

"Because we're dealing with monsters," Dinah said, patting him on the shoulder as she did. "If it helps in any way at least in this case, he'll probably at least know he isn't you. Miss Martian said they only planned to age him up to sixteen from what she gathered from Spence's mind." Dinah added, scowling. "They thought a child would be easier to control."

"That's disgusting."

Dinah nodded in agreement.

"We were lucky we got to him in time, especially considering the source of our tip off. Miss Martian said other than a shut down command; they didn't program him with anything. They were going to wait another week or two when they grew him up to sixteen."

Real lucky. Clark grimaced at the words. Shut down. Program. They talked about a child like he was a computer instead of flesh and blood.

"What do _you _plan on doing about him?" Dinah asked, still in that infuriatingly soft tone. "Have you thought about it all?"

Clark put his fingers through his hair and said, "He's my responsibility. We all talked about this scenario. This happened because we underestimated the Light and our DNA stolen. Like I said before I'll take care of him. He'll come live with me."

"Alright." She sighed, obviously holding something back a complaint. As she brushed a hair away from the comatose boy's face, she joked. "Well at least you were a cute kid"

Clark said, ignoring her attempt at humor, "I want to fly to Metropolis and throw Lex from the top of his stupid building and see if he bounces."

"I wouldn't stop you," She said, nodding. "But at least there's one good thing about this."

"What's that?" Superman asked, wondering what possible good thing can come from this violation.

"He's you so he probably doesn't have a bad bone in your body," Dinah said with a slight smile.

Clark wished he could believe that.

* * *

It feels like an eternity before the boy starts to stir, Dinah having long left to go back to Oliver who had woken up. Superman practically jumped out of his chair to get close to him.

The boy after several bleary blinks to adjust his eyes to the light turned his attention to him and looked at him with his eyes wide and filled with awe before it quickly turned to fear. The boy got into a sitting position and looked around wildly around the room in search of an exit. The moment he did, he instantly flew off towards its direction.

Well, at least he wasn't attacking him.

Grabbing the boy before he could hurt himself or someone else, Superman pushed the struggling child back towards the bed with significant effort. After several minutes, Superboy surrendered and had lay back on the bed.

Well, it seemed the boy was far more upset to see him than he was.

"Hello," He said mildly in the attempt to calm down the boy, ignoring his escape attempt. Words seemed to be failing the reporter so he decided to go simple. "I'm Superman; it's nice to meet you."

Superboy remained silent, his eyes narrowed as he examined the older man suspiciously.

This was going just great.

"Do you know who you are?" he asked gently in attempt to see exactly what the boy knew.

The boy thought hard about his next sentence before he said, "I am the _Superboy_, your clone."

It takes all of Superman's energy not to wince when he hears a version of his own voice coming from another person. "I see."

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked cautiously, trying to hide his fear, reminding the man of steel again that despite his origins, the boy was still a child and giving him a surprising boost of confidence when he did."They told me you don't kill."

"They?"

"The genomorphs," Superboy said as though it was obvious. "They taught me about you."

"I see." M'gann's report had told him all about the strange psychic creatures known at genomorphs crawling through the Cadmus building. But Clark really didn't want to think about what other things they had taught Superboy about him. "They're right about that. I don't kill."

"So what are you going to do with me?" Superboy asked again, crossing his arms as he did so which looked pretty ridiculous considering he was half wrapped around a blanket. "You don't kill. So are you just going to lock me up or something?"

"Why should I?" He inquired curiously. Wondering what exactly the boy thought he was guilty of doing. "Did you do something?"

"I'm your clone," he repeated as though that answered everything.

"I know lots of clones," Clark clarified.

"But _I'm _your clone." He said.

"Yes, you said that already. Three times even." Clark teased, in attempt to let the younger boy feel slightly more at ease while the knot in his stomach loosened as he did. "

"I-Isn't that enough?" The boy stammered, clearly puzzled by Superman's lack of reaction. "I was created to replace you. To be Superman when you die. "

Clark couldn't even attempt to hide _that_ wince. The idea that Lex planned Superboy for the possibility of his demise somehow managed to be a lot more disturbing than the idea that he was meant to a weapon used against a Man of Steel. Shaking the information off, he pushed on. "That's a very hard thing to be. Being Superman, you know?" Superman asked gently. "It's not something you can just be, Superboy."

"I know that!" He snapped.

"Then how about _I_ teach you how to be Superman?"

End Chapter

The kinda evil Superboy plot was omitted because it was becoming a plot tumor that needed to be dropped.

_There is a big reason I changed Blue Beetle to Cassie. It was a gaping error I didn't notice the first time around._


	2. Chapter 2

As you've noticed I removed the previous 3 chapters and did edit SOS's first chapter. They're going through rewrite (Not as serious as SNE) to tighten up the plot and characterization I think I can improve on.

The rewritten chapter of SOS and Young Sun's second chapter will be posted in a few days.


End file.
